The Arson at Happy Jack

by Charles Williamson

  “We promise to keep your name out of things completely unless you’re required to testify at a trial. This is about murder, not about religion. The world’s great religions share the belief that God prohibits murder,” I said. I could see anger in Ahmed’s eyes in my comment. He didn’t like the comment about shared religious beliefs.

  “What do you want from me?” Ahmed asked. Did I hear a hint of fear in his question? Did he know enough about the crime to be afraid of getting involved?

  “Zayd’s truck was found on the Navajo Reservation yesterday. We think the man who set the Happy Jack fire used it. Zayd’s truck provides a connection between his murder and the arson fires that have plagued the state the past two summers,” I explained.

  “I’m sorry about Zayd’s death, but I don’t know a thing about it or about the fires.” His accent was much stronger, and he looked down at the table. I wondered if he was directly involved.

  “Have you seen or heard anything that would connect local militants to an attempt to disrupt the Arizona economy by setting forest fires?” Chad asked.

  Ahmed was silent for a minute before asking, “My name will be kept out of things completely? You promise?”

  “We promise that we’ll not even put your name in our report. No one but the three of us will know we even talked,” I said.

  “You’re much more likely to find extremists in Phoenix than in a small town like Flagstaff,” he said and took a deep breath before continuing. “In Flagstaff, there are a few students who play video tapes of sermons by some very conservative Saudi clerics. This Wahhabism is the state religion in Saudi Arabia, but these clerics are on the radical fringe even for Saudis. They preach an Islam similar to what the Taliban preached in my country and the Islamic State preaches in Syria and Iraq. Some NAU Saudi students encourage other Muslims to listen to their extreme views. Hamad al-Subayyal and Ibrahim ibn-Mazin hold these meetings in the house they rent near downtown every Friday evening.”

  “We’ve talked with them but didn’t learn much,” Chad said.

  “There’s a big gap between playing inflammatory DVD’s and actually doing something, but they’re the only people I know in the area who’re pushing Wahhabism,” Ahmed said. “I can’t imagine why they would have killed Zayd. It certainly wasn’t to steal his truck. They have all the money they want. Hamad drives a BMW Z4 and Ibrahim has a Hummer.”

  We finished our burgers, asking a series of questions, but Ahmed was reluctant to mention any other names. He was convinced that no one in the Muslim community in northern Arizona could be involved in the arson fires.

  After lunch, we went to the campus and picked up the list of students from Chad’s friend at the Bursar’s Office. Of the twenty-seven students on the list, only ten were in summer school and still living in the dorm. We spent the afternoon interviewing students, and came away with nothing tangible. The other students who knew Zayd considered him a quiet person who studied hard and never drank or dated. No one mentioned that he was seeing a local girl, and we didn’t bring it up. We asked about any students who drove dark green Sierra pickups this summer without success.

  A few of the students knew Hamad al-Subayyal and Ibrahim ibn-Mazin from business school classes, but the two Saudis had never lived on campus and didn’t attend functions other than the MSA meetings. The only negative things we learned about the young Saudis were the claims by one of their classmates. He said that they were lazy when part of team projects and that they cheated whenever they could be certain of getting away with it. By this point in the investigation I knew one thing for certain; I’d have Hamad and Ibrahim under surveillance every Saturday night until the arsonist was caught.

  As Chad drove us back to Sedona, I called an acquaintance at the FBI’s anti terrorism unit in Washington. It was already after 7:00 in the East, but I knew Linda Surrett almost always worked until 9:00 or 10:00 when she was in town.

  “Damn, Mike, don’t tell me you have another terrorist situation in Sedona. You get into more trouble for a police officer in a hick town.” Linda and I had worked together enough times for her to try humor with me, but she’s not very good at it.

  “I’m calling about the Saturday Night Arsonist. I think he’s even been mentioned in the Washingoton Post. I know you only work on cases with a lot of publicity,” I replied.

  “You got me on that one, Michael. What can I do for you?” she said. Linda has the personality of a Tasmanian Devil, but we’d figured out how to work together over the past two years. She thinks I saved her life in Santa Fe last year.

  “We discovered yesterday, that there may be a connection between the arsonist and a young Saudi named Zayd Jabran,” I said.

  “I know about Jabran. The State Department called to check you out. The Director transferred them to me because I know you personally. Zayd’s father is a VIP and friend of the vice president. How’s he connected to the arson case?”

  “When Zayd was killed, his truck was taken. We think it was used by the arsonist when he started the Happy Jack Fire. That fire was started last Saturday, and it’s about to burn down my boss’s house as well as a thousand other homes in Flagstaff. They’ll have to start the evacuation tomorrow if we don’t get a break in the weather. I called you to see if there is any suspected terrorist group in Arizona, especially in this area. I also want to know anything in your files about Hamad al-Subayyal and Ibrahim ibn-Mazin, two NAU students from Saudi Arabia.”

  “Interesting, that’s a scenario that I haven’t run into - terrorists setting forest fires,” Linda said. “We had some hint of that sort of plan two years ago, but nothing came of it. I’ll do some research. In answer to your question, we’re watching a small group at ASU closely and three people in Tucson, but I don’t recall anything going on at NAU. I’ll check on the two men you mentioned with our Phoenix office and with Homeland Security and call you tomorrow. What makes you think this isn’t just some crazy local guy who likes fires?”

  “It hasn’t been in the papers, but these fires are being set by one or more people who drive through the forest in an ATV pulling a trailer that sprays gasoline. They use at least one fifty-five gallon container per fire. When they set the blaze off with a flare, a half mile front of flames explodes instantly. This last fire was focused on a ranger station where three people were killed, but it’s moving straight at Flagstaff now.”

  “If you want the FBI, we’ll send a team,” she said.

  “There are about fifty people on the taskforce already. I think adding people will just slow the interminable meetings even more. Anyway, asking for help should come from Major Ross of the Arizona State Police. He heads the taskforce. I’m just asking informally for a little information.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow. If you find this is an organized terrorist plot, I insist on the FBI being involved. Make sure Major Ross doesn’t forget us if things point in that direction.”

  I thanked Linda and said goodbye. To Chad, I commented, “Major Ross would be pissed if he knew I went directly to the FBI without mentioning it to him.”

  “I’ll keep my mouth shut. If the Sedona office is going to be closed, I need to keep on the good side of a major in the State Police. I might need a job,” Chad said. He’d obviously heard the rumor too. I wondered what the morale in the office was like. I hadn’t spent any time there in a week.

  “As far as I know, there’s been no decision on the Sedona office. I promise I’ll share any news with you. At this point, Sheriff Taylor has asked me for a recommendation of how to cut expenses.”

  “Sometimes the boss is the last to know,” he said with a grin.

  CHAPTER 21

  I called Margaret to let her know that I’d be late because I needed to work on the expense reduction project for the sheriff’s deadline on Saturday. She explained that the Aguilars had left for Santa Fe about noon. She’d prepare something cold for dinner so it could keep till I got home. I sent a brief e-mail to the State Department and settled in to work on the projec
t the sheriff had given me.

  One of the curses of being a manager is the need to prepare plans for eliminating the jobs of coworkers and friends. I started two lists. I wrote 25% at the top of the first one and 50% at the top of the other. I got out my current year’s budget and looked for any discretionary items to put on both lists. After I’d exhausted those items, I began to write down the names of those who’d be cut. I started each list with my own name.

  Two stressful hours later, I’d completed the project. I had a dull ache behind my eyes and a hollow feeling in my stomach. It was obvious that the 50% cut list was meaningless. The extent of the cuts would be so extensive, that there would be little point in keeping a physical office in Sedona. Coverage would be better if the overhead of the office was eliminated and some of the employees transferred to work from the Flagstaff office. I put my budget and the two lists in my briefcase to show to Margaret and headed home.

  I waited until after our dinner of walnut and tuna salad sandwiches and avocado and tomato slices to show the lists to Margaret. She’d been an office manager for twenty years before we retired to Sedona. It took her only a minute to review the lists.

  “Mike, if I wanted you to make a 25% cut, I’d probably ask you for both a 25% and 50% list under the assumption that you’d feel better when I only cut a quarter of the office,” she said. “I see you had no trouble putting yourself first on both lists, so I assume this is the time for your PI job, but I was surprised that Chad and Rose keep their jobs in both cases.”

  “If they join me in PI work, I want it to be by their choice, not forced. I’m assuming Chad will be promoted to manage the office when I leave, if there is an office. He’d probably prefer that to a risky job in a startup detective agency based in a town so small it might not be viable.”

  “You’ve had some high visibility cases in Arizona, but I also think you’ll get plenty of referrals from your LA contacts. You know half the cops in southern California.”

  “I’m thinking of calling myself a criminal apprehension consultant to indicate that I specialize in real crimes and not divorce and domestic issues. I don’t want to spend my old age spying on cheating husbands.”

  “Good idea. Decades of homicide and missing persons experience would be wasted if you spent all of your time tailing adulterers. Maybe you could consult with small town police departments that don’t have many homicides or other serious crimes. If you catch this arsonist, it would give you a boost of publicity just as you set up your business.”

  We continued talking about advertising in police magazines and creating web pages until it was time for bed. I was excited about the prospect of independence, but in the meantime, I had a couple of the most interesting cases I’d worked in years. I would do the best job possible until my last day with the Sheriff’s Department.

  It was a smoke-dulled Wednesday morning. As Margaret and I had breakfast on the deck, I explained everything that had happened on the cases the previous day. We had been too busy talking about the PI agency to spend time discussing the cases the previous evening.

  “Are these two Saudi NAU students who’re showing video sermons of a radical cleric your prime suspects?” she asked after I’d covered everything I knew about the Zayd homicide and the arson case.

  “Probably, but there’s nothing tangible connecting Hamad and Ibrahim to Zayd’s murder or to the arson fires.”

  “Isn’t it past the point where a real terrorist would be that public; having meetings at their house with all of the other Muslim students aware of it?” I thought she was right. Radical clerics have been a major source of recruits in many places, but maybe this was a little too public to be taken as a serious threat. However, they had mentioned that Zayd was often seen with a Christian girl and none of the other Muslim students acknowledged being aware of it. I suspected the relationship with Ashley was the basis for the cruelty of Zayd’s death. It was an ostracism death in the ancient Arabian style.

  “Are you suspicious of anyone else I’ve mentioned?” I asked.

  “I think real terrorists will try and fit in and disguise their radical beliefs,” she said. “Some of the 9-11 terrorists went to bars, attended neighborhood functions, and even had families in the US to give them cover. The arsonist is likely to be someone less visible, but I don’t have enough information to have a preference yet. I still think your taskforce is working on a bogus criminal profile, and the real culprit is planning these attacks carefully and developing his skills with each fire. He’s not setting these fires for the excitement.”

  I thought about the coming weekend. I wondered if we could keep track of all of the Muslim students who had stayed in the area for the summer. I needed to refine that list today. I hoped that prejudice was not a factor in my suspicion that the arsonist was a foreign student, but that was the pattern for the most successful attack, and I couldn’t dismiss that hypothesis.

  “I believe most of the members of the Muslim Student Association are not in Flagstaff for the summer,” I said. “I think there are about a dozen men who’d need to be watched. We’re lucky that the fires are only on Saturday nights. If I can persuade the sheriff, we can watch all of them without the help of the arson taskforce.”

  “There’s something else you might want to check,” Margaret said. “We know approximately when Zayd’s truck was taken. You should see if another stolen truck was abandoned in late May or early June. Also, the arsonist will need a new one now, and you should check for anything stolen in this area that would be big enough to carry both the ATV and the trailer that spreads the gas.” As I mentioned, Margaret is smarter than I am.

  “I’ll do it first thing,” I said.

  “Have you learned anything about how Zayd’s truck was painted dark green?” she asked.

  “Sheriff Taylor is having some Flagstaff deputies work on that. I haven’t heard anything yet,” I said. “I’ll check with Sheriff Taylor this morning.”

  I drove to the office immediately after breakfast. It was before 7:00 and Steven Bradley was still on duty. He’s the deputy with the least seniority and often is stuck with the night shift. I noticed on his desk that the local papers were turned to the want ad sections and several police-oriented magazines were opened to the classified sections. Under both the 25% and 50% scenarios, Steven would be terminated, and the office closed completely at night. The phone would be set to forward to the dispatcher in Flagstaff when Rose left for the day.

  “Morning boss. You’re at it bright and early, but you’ve already had a call from an Agent Surrett with the FBI in Washington. There’s also a reporter who’d like to interview you live at 7:45 about the Zayd Jabran murder for a morning talk-radio show in Phoenix.” He handed me both notes.

  “Good morning Steven. Rose told that me you’re very good with computer searches and understand the system better than anyone but her. See if you can research the recovery of stolen trucks that occurred in May and June of this year anywhere in Arizona. Also, find a record of all trucks and vans stolen in the past two weeks in the state. When Chad gets in, please ask him to come see me.”

  I called Linda Surrett. She agreed to check the records on all of the members of the Muslim Student Association at NAU who had spent the past two summers in Arizona.

  “The two young men whose names you provided yesterday, Hamad al-Subayyal and Ibrahim ibn-Mazin, are pretty typical Saudi students. Like most young Saudis, they are anti American. They hate our power and their own lack of it. It’s American protection that has kept their neighbors from grabbing their oil for fifty years, but they loathe their dependence on us. They’re from a very different cultural tradition, and they see the world through their own cultural filter. Playing video tapes of radical clerics is not very unusual. Wahhabism is the state religion of Saudi Arabia and anti Americanism dominates their mosques. ”

  “Should they be suspects?” I asked.

  “That’s the really difficult question. These young men probably have a strong interest in ke
eping the status quo in their own country. They’re from prominent families who would have a lot to lose if there was any change in the royal family’s position in Saudi Arabia. However, that was also true of many of the 9-11 terrorists, Osama bin Laden, and other senior al Qaeda operatives. These young students could be part of a terrorist sleeper cell, but that’s true of almost anyone from the Middle East. The so-called Islamic State is great at working social media contacts into actual supporters. We have no evidence that these two are in active contact with any known Islamic State cells.”

  “You’ll call me immediately if any of the other names on the list I’m faxing shows up as suspicious?” I asked.

  “Of course. Please remember it’s often difficult to sort these things out using only names. Al Qaeda and Islamic State terrorists used many aliases. If you want a team from FBI Phoenix to help, just ask,” she said. I decided to talk to Sheriff Taylor about asking for their help. I thanked her, but her information wasn’t of much help.

  CHAPTER 22

  I had just finished the interview with the Phoenix reporter when Chad entered and sat in the chair across from my desk. “Morning Mike, what’s on the agenda for today? I hope it’s not another three hour meeting.”

  “Zayd’s truck was probably a replacement for the vehicle the arsonist was using last summer. In addition, he’ll need a new one now since Zayd’s truck got too hot for him to keep. We’re looking for recently stolen vehicles that would accommodate both the ATV and the trailer he’s pulling with the drum of gasoline. Steven is researching the recently stolen trucks.”

  “Good idea. We can have everyone on the taskforce on the lookout for these stolen vehicles this weekend. If the arsonist tries to start another fire, it’ll be easier to spot him.”

  “It was Margaret’s suggestion at breakfast,” I said.